Secret (Hero) Santa
by CaptainMalcolmReynolds
Summary: The four friends are gathered to have a holiday exchange of gifts, but it is an akuma that hands Adrien the best gift of all


_A Secret Santa gift for Spider-Momo! Merry Christmas!_

* * *

Christmas in Paris was one of Marinette's favorite times of year. She loved how everyone was that much kinder, smiles that much quicker in coming. The lights seemed to twinkle brighter in the soft chill of the air, and, if they were very lucky, a few snowflakes would fall, lending a sense of ethereal beauty to the scene.

To her, one of the best parts of the season was the gifts shared between friends and loved ones. Marinette prided herself on finding, or more often making, just the right gift for everyone. Naturally, she added sweets for everyone along with handmade hats and scarves, hand-drawn images of favorite superheroes or handmade jewelry.

Her friends had made plans to gather a few days after Christmas to exchange gifts with each other, and it was joyously agreed to meet at the bakery where Tom and Sabine would ply them with sweet treats and hot cocoa.

They had drawn names for a Secret Santa exchange, although Marinette had knitted them each hats and mittens, as well as baked them matching macarons. Alya's winter wear was a rich orange color, matched by her orange-flavored macarons. Nino's were a bright grass green to match his matcha macarons, something her mother had experimented with a few years ago, and he'd fallen in love with. For Adrien, she'd gone with a sky blue, the exact match of the scarf she'd made him for his birthday, and settled on blue coconut macarons.

She'd drawn Nino's name for the Secret Santa exchange, and had immediately gone to her friends in Kitty Section with a plan. Armed with their knowledge, she had approached a few dozen local bands, and bartered for mixes of their music, explaining that it was a gift for an up and coming DJ, most were more than willing to help out in exchange for sketches, baking, or at-cost CDs. In total, she had gathered twenty five albums from local bands that played everything from heavy metal to traditional French folk songs.

She placed the four packages under the tree, each wrapped in colored paper that matched the recipient's gifts, both of Nino's being wrapped in green paper. She was just straightening the plate of cookies on the coffee table for the third time when the doorbell rang.

Rushing downstairs, Marinette opened the door to a rush of cold air and a grinning Alya. She also had a stack of presents, not just the one for the secret santa exchange. When Marinette gestured for her to place them under the tree, Alya grinned up at her friend. "You too?"

"Yep! Think the boys will?"

"Probably. I know Nino was planning on it."

Marinette laughed as the bell rang again. "Well, I guess we'll find out, won't we?"

Marinette headed down, tripping on the last step, so she banged heavily against the door at the bottom, but still pulled it open to see the boys standing there on her stoop. Nino held an armful of packages, but Adrien just held a small bag.

They clattered up the stairs together, the boys calling a hello into the kitchen where her parents were sitting, sipping coffee, enjoying a rare few days off. The bakery was usually closed for the week between Christmas and New Year, allowing the residents some family time, as well as a much needed break after all the insanity of the first few weeks of December.

Nino deposited his presents under the tree, and reached over to hug Marinette before engulfing his girlfriend in a giant hug, tenderly kissing her temple. Both of them had been swept up in familial obligations since school let out, so they hadn't seen each other in almost a week. Adrien hugged both girls, first Alya, then Marinette, lingering next to her as Alya and Nino softly argued about who had missed who more.

Alya and Nino talked of kids and cousins, chaotic gatherings and boisterous dinners. Marinette told of a quietly joyous celebration, her grandfather joining them for the first time, and her grandmother calling from Argentina, where she found herself currently. Adrien's eyes grew sad at the stories, although his practiced smile never wavered from his face. His only joy was that his father had joined him for dinner, and they had briefly spoken about Christmases past, when hearts and memories were warmer.

Nino finally stood, grinning. "Well, I can't wait any longer." He picked up the little gift bag he had brought and handed it to Adrien, along with the flat square packages that he handed to each of them. Adrien looked wondrously at the two packages in his lap, torn as to which he should open first.

Alya took the decision out of his hands, telling him that if he didn't pick one then she would open hers as well as his. He laughed, delicately peeling the tape from the wrapping paper, until a laughing Alya grabbed the gift from him, ripped the paper down the middle, and handed it back.

As the two parts of the paper fell away, Adrien was left holding a personalized mix that Nino had made him. "It highlights our friendship, Dude. It's the happy memories that we've had this past year. When Adrien looked back at his best friend, his green eyes were misted over with unshed tears, and his smile was absolutely radiant.

"Open the other one." Nino urged.

Marinette smiled to herself as Adrien opened the small bag, pulling out a ladybug themed phone case. She knew the moment he realized what made it special. She remembered the last time she'd worked with Carapace. He'd pulled her aside after handing back his Miraculous, asking if he would sign these two Ladybug phone cases that he'd bought. One to Adrien, the other to Alya. She had agreed, grinning with the knowledge that Alya had one-upped him, having had her sign a miraculous themed case that had the autographs of not just Ladybug, but Chat and Rena Rouge as well, just the week before.

She hadn't realized that Adrien was such a Ladybug fanboy, because he gasped, his eyes growing huge and round at the sight of her autograph. He launched himself at his best friend, smothering him in a giant hug, before Nino, laughing, dumped him unceremoniously onto the floor.

Once Adrien was back on his feet, he detoured to the tree, picking up his gift for Alya. He handed it to her, smiling shyly. She opened the small bag, gasping at the package of top of the line video editing software that was inside. "I thought you could use it for your blog." Rubbing the back of his neck, he looked down at the ground, until Alya grabbed him into a bearhug, not letting go of her gift.

"Thank you, Adrien!" She said, sincerely, gazing lovingly at the little box in her hands. "There's no way I could afford this stuff. I promise to get you some amazing Ladybug videos for your collection!"

Adrien blushed pink, and didn't meet anyone's eye. Meanwhile, Marinette was having an internal meltdown, a partially eaten cookie stopped partway to her mouth, while she processed the fact that Adrien seemed to have a crush on Ladybug… who was her!

Reaching into his pocket, he also pulled out three small slips of paper, and handed one to each of them. "I'm sorry I didn't wrap these. I hope that's alright." Marinette's brain still wasn't fully functional, and her hands took the paper mechanically until Alya squealed, "A Clara Nightingale ticket? You got us tickets to her concert?!"

Nodding as his grin spread across his face Adrien smirked at them. "All four of us. Third row. I couldn't talk Nathalie into getting us backstage passes, though. I do have Father's promise that I can go."

"I'm not sure I can top that, but here." Alya ducked under the tree to pull out her gifts for everyone, handing her Secret Santa gift to Marinette. Together they all opened their individual gifts, Alya had made photo collages of the superheroes, each tailored to their favorites. Adrien's was primarily pictures of Ladybug, or Ladybug and Chat together in tender moments, the central picture being the one Alya took after she'd been freed from her akumatization of the two heroes kissing.

Nino's collage had a few photos of the main duo, but focused more on Rena Rouge and Carapace. Marinette hid her grin when she saw it, knowing that the pair thought that nobody else would get it.

Marinette's picture was fairly evenly distributed, with pictures of all of the heroes, some only in the background, just because they hadn't been photographed much. Smiling down at the pictures, Marinette felt a sense of pride swelling within her. These were her friends, whether they realized it or not, and she was amazed at how little hesitation they showed as they followed her, well, Ladybug, into battle.

She pulled the gift bag into her lap and pulled the tissue paper off of the top, tossing it at Alya, who caught it, laughing. Reaching down further, her fingers encountered something plush and incredibly soft, pulling out a pink and black hooded sweatshirt. "OK, girl, I know you could probably make one of these, but It was just so soft. And look!" Alya points to the pink lining of the ears perched on the hood, and the long pink and black striped tail hanging down the back. "It's like a pink Chat Noir."

"But so soft!" Marinette cried, burying her face into the front of it, as Adrien fought to control the blush threatening to creep up his neck. Marinette stood and shrugged out of the jacket she was wearing, pulling the kitty hoodie over her head. It hung long on her petite frame, but the tail sprouted from the small of her back, and the ears wiggling on the top of her head remind Adrien of the time he had her as Multimouse.

Swaying her hips to get the tail moving from side to side, Marinette walked over to the tree, handing each of her friends their own color coded package. Smiling, they, near simultaneously, tore the paper off of the smaller packages, showing the hat and mittens to each other, exclaiming over the color choices. Marinette noticed that Adrien was studying his very closely, specifically the stitching, but quickly looked away as he looked up at her, a blush stealing across her face.

Focusing her attention on Nino, who was opening his gift, she grinned at his softly spoken "Whoa, dude! This is awesome!" She explained that they were all from local bands, and that they had all agreed to let him use their songs in his remixes.

As her three friends looked closer at their gifts, Marinette dashed to the kitchen, returning with a plate of cookies, telling them to save their macarons for later. Eager hands reached for them, and they sat around, chatting about how their Christmases were, and things that they had done so far on their break. Alya had just launched into a funny story about Nora, Ella, Etta, a tub of slime and the neighbor's cat when all of their phones chimed an akuma alert.

Marinette glanced around nervously, looking for an excuse to extricate herself from her friends without drawing too much suspicion. Alya was busy trying to find more information about the attack, and Nino was trying to talk her out of going. Glancing at Adrien, she noticed he looked uncomfortable, and his eyes kept darting around the room, his fingers twitching against his leg as restless as his eyes.

Marinette took a few steps towards the door, and it was on the tip of her tongue to say that she was going downstairs to alert her parents to be prepared for an attack, when Sabine walked through the door. She looked around, taking in the situation, as Marinette shifted nervously next to her.

Smiling, she asked, "Why are you all sitting around? Adrien, dear, do you need privacy to change? Why don't you head over into the bathroom there. Marinette. Why don't you go and grab that magic jewelry box out of your room. I'm sure if Alya and Nino help out, you guys will be back here in no time, and your day won't be completely ruined."

The four friends just stared at her. "Wh-what are you talking about, Maman?" Marinette asked, looking incredibly uncomfortable. "Magic box? I don't have a magic box!"

Sabine shook her head. "There's an akuma out there, and someone needs to take care of it." She leveled Marinette with a stern look, and her daughter sighed, looking away.

Tikki floated out of Marinette's purse and looked at Sabine. "We should talk about this later." Turning to Marinette, she added, "but for now, your mom's right. There's an akuma to take care of."

Plagg was poking Adrien's cheek, as the boy was staring, slack jawed at Marinette. Alya was stunned enough that she'd dropped her phone, and Nino was retrieving it when Marinette spoke. "OK, guys, I guess, come on up and I'll get you your miraculous." She smiled sheepishly at Adrien, the blush staining her cheeks as he continued staring. "Y-you coming, Kitty?"

The nickname seemed to snap him out of his trance, and he jumped to his feet, following the other three up to Marinette's room, where she pulled a ladybug spotted egg out of a basket of yarn. Opening it carefully, she handed Alya the fox miraculous, and Nino the Turtle Miraculous. As they donned the necklace and bracelet, Trixx and Wayzz appeared, looking around wonderingly at the untransformed teens in front of them.

Tikki just shrugged, giving them an 'I'll explain later' look, and turned to Marinette. Taking a deep breath, Marinette called for her transformation, and Ladybug stood there. Nino and Alya followed suit, as Ladybug started climbing up to the balcony. She was halfway through the skylight when Adrien started and called for his transformation, and Plagg, grinning, was sucked into his ring.

Scrambling to catch up with the others, who were already launching themselves into the afternoon, Chat's grin practically split his face. This was possibly the best Christmas present he'd ever received.


End file.
